Brand Building

In early 2011, mobile payment was an all-new category being shaped by players as varied as Google, Square, mobile carriers, and credit card companies. Major retailers, frustrated by transaction fees, saw mobile payments as an opportunity to eliminate transaction processing fees; maintain control of transaction data; and simplify, enhance, and secure their customers’ shopping experience.

In early 2012, a small group of the most visible leading U.S. retailers saw the effect mobile payments, then just a service category looming on the horizon, could have on their business. They formed a consortium dedicated to developing a truly useful and applicable mobile payments solution.

MBLM helped the initial consortium members define the value proposition and create a new name and visual identity to reflect the new company’s unique focus on technology and it’s desire to bridge the interests of retailers and their customers.

The new name, Merchant Customer Exchange, expresses the balanced view of commerce that guided the company’s formation and the development of its proprietary mobile payments platform and app. The acronym MCX was added to symbolize the immediacy of the exchange through technology.

Since its formation, MCX has attracted more than 60 of America’s favorite merchants. It is the only merchant-owned mobile commerce network built to streamline the customer shopping experience across all major retail verticals.

In 2014, MCX launched CurrentC, its new mobile payments platform, in private pilot mode in select locations across the country. At full scale, CurrentC will be accepted at more than 110,000 merchant locations across the country, giving consumers unmatched access to their favorite retailers; it will also offer innovative features and benefits such as merchant loyalty programs and instant coupon savings.